What Do Dreams of Zombies Mean?

Leaping all the way down the staircase in a single bound – you’re in your office, terrified, your life in danger. But how? In a nutshell, your workmates are all trying to eat you.

It started during the lunch break. Something infected the cafeteria food, transforming your previously delightful colleagues into bloodthirsty zombies. (Thank God you packed your sandwiches today.) But now it’s you on the menu.

Landing at the bottom of the stairwell, you sprint to the car park. A dozen ravenous former colleagues are hot on your tail. You dive inside your car moments before the horde starts swarming around it.

Closing your eyes, you take a deep breath, count to three and slam the car into reverse – running over your boss in the process (no chance of a promotion now) and zoom away at top speed.

Then you wake up in a cold sweat. It was all just a horrible nightmare. But what on earth could it mean?

It must be one of the most terrifying of nightmares. Being chased by flesh-eating zombies is said to be a sign that you’re running from your problems. So, if you do have this dream, maybe it’s time you faced it. According to Dreamsopedia, dreams about being chased by zombies are:

“A message for dependency and reliance on other people. Your dream is a signal for negative energy or a bad temper. You are not expressing your feelings effectively.”

If you dream about turning into a zombie, your subconscious mind is likely trying to tell you that your emotions are unsettled. Feelings that vary from day to day can be stressful because you might feel overwhelmed by the quick change in your mood.

You can be reassured that if you have a dream about trying to destroy a zombie, it actually has a positive meaning! The dream can mean you’re about to achieve all your goals.

“Escaping and shooting the zombies in the dream is a positive omen,” says Aunty Flo. However, if you shoot at the zombies but can’t take them down, it might reflect feeling like you’re aiming for a goal but just can’t quite reach it.

If you are ever unfortunate enough to dream about a zombie invasion, it could be that your subconscious mind has revealed you’re struggling to forgive yourself because of a misunderstanding. According to Millers Guild:

“If you keep dreaming about zombie invasions, you need to ask yourself whether it is possible to fix things because your emotions are suffering as a result.”

People have been fascinated by the idea of the ‘living dead’ for centuries. Indeed, the English word “zombie” was first recorded in 1819, in the history of Brazil, by the poet Robert Southey, in the form of “zombie”. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the origin of the word as West African and compares it to the Kongo words “nzambi” (god) and “zumbi” (fetish).

Since then, the depiction of zombies has evolved. The modern zombies portrayed in books, games, TV series, and films are quite distinct from zombies of folklore, which only emerged in popular culture during recent decades. This “zombie” is seen in George Romero’s formative film Night of the Living Dead.

Games also include a wide range of appearances, from the cartoony feature in Plants vs Zombies, to the long-running series Resident Evil. Zombies have become so ubiquitous with games, in fact, that it’s almost a joke that they will never just be called zombies in them anymore!

As zombies have gained so much popularity in urban legends and popular culture, it’s no surprise that the number of dream reports about zombies has increased worldwide.